Just thinking about how sometimes an approaching deadline makes me piss my pants, I have the utmost respect for these people, who live and work under the highest pressure, out there, alone in the void helpless, if something goes really wrong. Only one small piece of their gear malfunctions and they are done.
And then I'm thinking about the complexity of all the systems they are supported and kept alive by. I couldn't probably help but constantly be thinking that with a huge human-designed system like that, something is always bound to go wrong and that I would probably die in a few minutes because of some obscure equipment failure.
And yet, there he is, floating around, keeping it cool, just doing his stuff in that floating cable jungle, swinging that razor sharp knife around like he isn't a knife cut away from eternity. I will try to keep this image in mind next time when my cables get tangled.
Actually if I were up there I'd be more worried about the lack of pressure, I saw the opportunity and couldn't resists on a more serious note though.
Agreed, I know a couple submariners who told me they'd tie a string from one side of the room to the other. As they dove the string would begin to droop and loose tension, a lot of tension.
Makes my head spin just thinking about the possibilities, which I'd be doing if I were down there...
> Actually if I were up there I'd be more worried about the lack of pressure
Interesting you should mention that. I learned a few days ago that while the ISS at large is kept at 1ATM, the spacesuits they use for spacewalks are only pressurized to a fraction of that (if you pressurize a suit too much, it becomes too balloon-like to easily move). Because of this astronauts/cosmonauts have to spend several hours before each space-walk breathing pure oxygen so that they don't get the bends.
That degree of preparation before every spacewalk would disturb me to some extra degree I think. If there was a problem, it's not like somebody else could just hop into another suit and come help you.
There are several different "pre-breathe protocols" used prior to US spacewalks to avoid the bends. Some involve taking the airlock down to 10.2 psi (as opposed to 14.7 psi for 1 ATM) and sleeping there overnight. Also the crew may hang out in the suit while still in the space station for several hours before the spacewalk. The suit is pressurized with pure oxygen and is at a 4.3 psi.
All of this does make for a long day. Even though the spacewalk may only be 6 or 7 hours, entire day with preparations and clean up afterwards is exhausting.
